


39.7 (day 23-Bedridden)

by Only_Slightly_Obsessed (A_Stressed_Cupcake)



Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [23]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Angst, Gen, Good for her, Rio has committed to being the annoying little sibling, Sibling Rivalry, Sickfic, Trauma, but he's nice, but not a whole lot, durbe is barely here, he swears, the rating is for Shark's potty mouth, this is mostly just siblings being siblings, you can't tell me this boy wouldn't swear like a sailor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:01:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Stressed_Cupcake/pseuds/Only_Slightly_Obsessed
Summary: Contrary to popular belief, Rio is not prone to illness._____Whumptober 2020 day 23-Bedridden
Relationships: Kamishiro Rio & Kamishiro Ryouga
Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965271
Kudos: 7
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	39.7 (day 23-Bedridden)

**Author's Note:**

> cw the flu, and a lot of language. Shark swears like a sailor, appropriately.

Contrary to popular belief, Rio is not prone to illness. That is mostly because fire-related injuries courtesy of a certain tiny bastard and his son, supernatural comic-related comas, semi-artificial jellyfish venom and otherworldly past life-related curses don’t count. Otherwise, she is not and was never an especially sickly individual.

Which didn’t make months in the hospital any easier to bear. Granted, she was unconscious for most of it, but still. She would have been better off  _ not _ lying in a hospital bed with several burns and more smoke inhalation complications than anyone her age should ever see, thank you very much.

In fact, the amount of times her and/or her brother have been hospitalised in the span of ten years or so is frankly disturbing. She didn't even know about the time he was stabbed until he casually mentioned it about a year after the fact. Which says a lot about them.

The point is, she has no desire to be stuck in a bed ever again. So, when she wakes up one morning feeling like her entire circulatory system is on fire, she gets up immediately, because that’s the wise thing to do. If she immediately collapses to the ground afterwards, well, that’s hardly her fault.

Ryouga appears to strongly disagree with the sentiment when he finds her not twenty minutes later, still laying on the much, much cooler floor beneath her. 

“What the hell?” is the first thing he says after tucking her back into bed.

She shrugs.

“Rio, you are  _ radiating _ heat like the goddamn sun. Just your forehead feels like your blood is boiling. Do  _ not _ get up.”

“Is that a challenge?”

“It is not. Don’t test me.” he grumbles, dropping a thermometer into her lap, “Now take your temperature or I will do it myself.”

She sticks her tongue out at him, but does it anyway, resulting in a whopping 39.7° Celsius. Her brother takes a few seconds to respond.

“Yeah, you are not moving from this bed until it drops below 37.” he concludes.

“ _ What _ ?” she hisses, “37? Come on, that’s mean. I can walk just fine at 38.”

“Stay down before I decide to tie you up.” he threatens, getting the thermometer back to a regular temperature with one hand and immediately texting Durbe with the other, “I’ll get you an aspirin. Do not fucking move or I’ll put sleeping pills in your tea.”

She knows better than to ignore  _ that _ warning.

Needless to say, neither of them show up to school.

At lunchtime, she finds it hard to keep anything down. She does manage to eat (or rather drink) about half a bowl of chicken soup, and her temperature has thankfully dropped to 39°, but she isn’t feeling much better.

She finds most of her entertainment not in denying she’s ill, because that will not convince anyone, but in being the biggest drama queen their house has ever seen. And they hang out with  _ Vector _ sometimes, so the bar is set higher than the moon.

“Alas!” she sighs, dramatically, “This is how it ends.”

She can feel Ryouga’s glare from two rooms away.

“ _ Rio!! _ ” he shouts, “ _ It’s the fucking  _ **_flu_ ** _. _ ”

There’s a terrible ache in her bones that suggests flu season has, indeed, finally caught up to her. She finds it increasingly hard to keep herself distracted from the hazy, distant memories of the hospital. Nothing seems to work for too long, especially not when the ache in her spine forces her to lie down the whole time.

Still, she can at least sit up in bed to read something by the time lunch break is underway and Kotori calls her to check in, because that girl is a blessing. Not alone, of course. Just behind her, crowded around the screen, are Yuma, Tetsuo, a bored-looking Alit and even Michael Arclight for some reason, which does not help her trip down memory lane in the slightest, no matter how few similarities he shares with his older brother.

“ _ Rio-san! _ ” greet her underclassmen, to which she responds with a wave of her hand.

“Hi.” she rasps out, “So, what did I miss today?”

“ _ I wouldn’t know. _ ” Kotori shakes her head apologetically, “ _ We don’t share any classes with you. I can ask the teacher if you’d like. _ ”

She would very much like that, in fact. 

Their conversation isn’t brief by any means, and has to be interrupted repeatedly by a coughing fit or a sudden urge to gag. Thankfully, Yuma talks over most of it. Because that’s just how he is, and sometimes it’s not even that bad. She is still going to kick his ass for calling her  _ Shark’s sister _ seven times in one call, though, just as soon as she can stand. And Alit for teasing her, naturally. 

Tetsuo still has not quite grasped the concept of  _ not flirting with people while they are horribly sick and decidedly not in the mood _ , but it’s easily ignored.

And little Michael barely speaks at all, beyond a polite greeting and an even more polite wishing her well. And still, it’s his face that remains burned in her mind when the call is over and she has to lie down again because the pain is getting to her.

She’s had enough of burns. Enough of her own blood betraying her, enough of fevers, enough of cold sweat one moment and kicking the blankets off the next moment, enough of being sick, enough of being stuck in a damn bed.

Rio curls up a little.

She’s stronger than this.

Something like the flu should never be able to get to her. But no, it’s not the flu, she knows it, it’s the damn  _ bed _ and being unable to move from it. Ryouga doesn’t budge on this point, though, and she can’t exactly fight him in her condition, and she hates that most of all. Worse, judging by how uncomfortably he sits and how he coughs into his sleeve, twin misfortune is catching up to him and he’ll be just as ill tomorrow morning, and isn’t  _ that _ wonderful, both of them bedridden, once again, because  _ why the hell not, universe _ ?

It pisses her off to no end.

When she goes to sleep that night, the fever has fallen to 38 and no lower.

She was right, it turns out, about twin misfortune. Unfortunately, the next morning, Ryouga is in even worse condition than she is. Less unfortunately, that means she gets to be smug about him having to stay in bed. Less unfortunately still, Durbe has also correctly predicted the outcome of her illness and is currently playing nurse to them both.

With much better company than yesterday and the rush of energy that is being smug to a sibling, the memories of hospitals and oxygen masks slip away like water off of soap.

They spend the next week like that, getting better or worse as the day’s whims call for.

And, when Durbe inevitably catches the flu as soon as they’ve recovered, the tables turn.

**Author's Note:**

> I live and breathe for Rio Kamishiro doing everything in her power to be an annoying little sister. You can fight me on that.  
> Many cameos in this one but I still can't give poor III a break apparently.
> 
> -Rémy


End file.
